Mai Tai Bar

Mai tais everywhere,
Sails lop like curls
On a swimmer’s
Golden hair,
And right here,
Beside the lash
And slap of sea,
The sun now shear,
Cameras flash,
A small bird glides
Beneath the trees,
And blond-
Skinned prequels,
Next year’s brides,
Smile and preen, as waves
Meet and break away
In today’s pearl sheen.

The beach unfurls
Under yellow parasols,
As the chosen one,
Blessed in a lull
Of light, waits
For the minute when
Wonder, love, and tide
Depend, like those
Of us, who,
With the rest,
Bend the knee,
And raise a toast
To just this end.

Waves build, coral darkens
Into steel, singles shimmy
Down to shore, their
Trousseaux on display,
The entire air
At play: cinch your bows,
Roommates of the real,
Covered in the trapezoids
Of hope, not so much
To hide as to reveal,
Not so much to saunter
As to kneel.

Poems end here.
And people, too.
And me. Nothing more
Than coral sea,
The endless blue,
Novels open
On the sand.

Nothing more
Than this.
And right now—
Beach plum spilling
On an ocean wall,
The residue
Of an ancient kiss—
That
Is all there is.

April 9th, 2022
Mai Tai Bar, Royal Hawaiian

April 10th & 11th, 2022
Kaiholu